Love People and Principle

Christians must be ready to let go of their freedoms to protect their brothers and sisters in Christ from sin.

Love people more than being right.

vv 1-3

Be led by love.

If I could be honest with y’all for a minute, this is an area of struggle for me. Kristen would probably be the most shocked to hear this. It’s really difficult for me let something go if I feel like I’m right and you’re wrong. If I’m right and you told me that I was wrong then I feel like I could explode if I don’t make you aware of it.

1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

This does not mean we don’t worry about the truth. Hiding the truth is not loving. But what is our attitude?

Ephesians 4:15 ESV

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

The greatest thing is love, and it leads us in the way we do everything else. Establishing that love is first and leads us in all else, Paul moves to establishing truth.

Don’t give worldly things too much power.

vv4-6

At least once, but I think a couple times since I’ve been in ministry I’ve had students ask me about ouija boards. There are no spirits that have any special power or understanding or wisdom that you should listen to.

Colossians 1:16 ESV

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

We were not created to trust in the things of this world to satisfy our needs, we were created for Jesus.

Don’t give your phone, social media, money, sports, friends, anything power in your life that doesn’t actually have power in your life. None of these things have power in themselves to do anything. There is only one God with power to work in your life so only look to Him as God. But some Christians are still learning this. Some have certain things they still struggle with. We all do!

Be patient with the weak.

vv7-13

We had a conversation earlier today in the office about something that can happens between husbands and wives sometimes. I won’t give any names to protect the innocent as well as the guilty, but some of my co-workers were sharing that tendency for wives to get mad at husbands if they let their wives eat more food than them. This has happened to me before. Kristen wants fries or something and I’m not in the mood for it and she gets mad at me for having something healthier or maybe less expensive than what she’s got. I’m supposed to be less healthy or spend more money to make you feel better? In that situation, I’m not changing what I’m doing so you feel better. But Paul tells us that there are situations where we should lay our freedoms aside.

Philippians 2:3–4 ESV

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Close by showing how Jesus is our great example of this in Phil 2: 5-8; 9-11